Startin' new project (MiG-3)

[gamary]

I'm a bit surprised you're having such difficulties. If your base colour is neutral grey (50% grey), and you create shapes with only pure black and pure white, you shouldn't be losing anything...

Could you send me a cropped version of your PSD file, so that I can see how it is built? Maybe I can help you out better then. If you could send me the section I pointed out in red, it would be fine.



My email address is webmaster[AT]gaetanmarie[DOT]com.

[Mangas]

I'm a bit surprised you're having such difficulties. If your base colour is neutral grey (50% grey), and you create shapes with only pure black and pure white, you shouldn't be losing anything...

I didn't know it should be 50% grey precisely (I'm new, remember?)

Could you send me a cropped version of your PSD file, so that I can see how it is built? Maybe I can help you out better then. If you could send me the section I pointed out in red, it would be fine.

Why should I crop anything? I trust you so I'm sending you my current *.psd file as it is... (Please check you PM)...
Thanks for trying to help.

[x4btr]

Well, to be honest I have to say that quite a bit more work needs to be done to this MiG's shape; indeed, in all areas. Perhaps the nose stands out as requiring the most re-working, but looking to better references will be needed across the board here, and as well with various detail items.

The material on the linked site ('sovietwarplanes.com') is nothing more than a dogmatic recitation of Voronin's classic 1981 DOSAAF drawings. These were wonderful in their day; 30 years on they are now quite dated and in need of considerable revision. I will not bother to describe any of the other relevant "information" regarding the MiG on this site with any adjective used in normal conversation.

On the contrary, a volume with accurate scale line drawings and colour profiles may be found on LuLu.com. This same book was just reviewed in the latest issue of Airfix Model World, for those looking for a preview. The title describes MiG production in scale drawings, a complete set for each of the major production blocks of the MiG-1 and -3, including detail items, equipment, and such like. All of the drawings were created from copious measurements of the actual MiG specimens recovered and sent to Novosibirsk for use in the MiG Warbirds project there, these allied to new archival research [e.g. the date of manufacture for any Production Number is now known, along with its mfg. details].

I invite anyone to have a look and judge for themselves, but surely this will be the only reference for any serious attempt to draw the MiG-3 family. The book will also allow one to get the varient and fitment details correct for their profiles, which at present will never happen.

[Mangas]

Well, to be honest I have to say that quite a bit more work needs to be done to this MiG's shape; indeed, in all areas.

Hello, Eric.
I knew you won't miss this, and would appear (sooner or later)...
I'm sorry but I didn't understand most of the things you said... Except, perhaps, that it's not correct overall and everythin' needs to be reworked.

I knew it would come to this... (sigh)...
Soviet VVS aircrafts (especially single-seated fighters) is a subject of a huge debates, especially here, in Russia. Everybody keep cursing each other, their claimings starting with "my grandfa flew these" up to "I have it's remains under my mattress", stating their POV is the only possible true, throwing rotten tomatoes at each other together with dubious drawings... (I give you 200%: as soon as I start applying color & camo to this -- tons of guck will be poured on me, beginning with "absolutely wrong AMT-4 color" up to "fantasy camo scheme that never existed"... Mark my words... )
As for me, I believe the more time passes by -- the further is the truth; there are ALREADY tons of questions we will never find answers for... Unfortunately... Actually, this is one of the main reason I started to make cockpit repaints (_I-16_Cockpits_Pack_Ultimate_Final.7z) and skins (and now -- profiles) for Soviet VVS fighters...

[Mangas]

Summary: no matter whatever blueprints you use -- there always will be guys who will claim "this is all just wrong"... (But, 99% of these never produce anything, except for saliva to spit at each other...)

P.S.: offtopic: administrators, I need more than 5 minutes to edit my posts, please...

[JMSmith]

hi x4btr,

i still have ALL the work done by the auther of the mig site, and trust me it most definitely is not a rehash
to use an english expression,
put your money where your mouth is and show us something better

[Mangas]

Well, to be honest I have to say that quite a bit more work needs to be done to this MiG's shape; indeed, in all areas. Perhaps the nose stands out as requiring the most re-working, but looking to better references will be needed across the board here, and as well with various detail items.

The material on the linked site ('sovietwarplanes.com') is nothing more than a dogmatic recitation of Voronin's classic 1981 DOSAAF drawings. These were wonderful in their day; 30 years on they are now quite dated and in need of considerable revision. I will not bother to describe any of the other relevant "information" regarding the MiG on this site with any adjective used in normal conversation.

On the contrary, a volume with accurate scale line drawings and colour profiles may be found on LuLu.com. This same book was just reviewed in the latest issue of Airfix Model World, for those looking for a preview. The title describes MiG production in scale drawings, a complete set for each of the major production blocks of the MiG-1 and -3, including detail items, equipment, and such like. All of the drawings were created from copious measurements of the actual MiG specimens recovered and sent to Novosibirsk for use in the MiG Warbirds project there, these allied to new archival research [e.g. the date of manufacture for any Production Number is now known, along with its mfg. details].

I invite anyone to have a look and judge for themselves, but surely this will be the only reference for any serious attempt to draw the MiG-3 family. The book will also allow one to get the varient and fitment details correct for their profiles, which at present will never happen.

O.K... I've got it now! There's no mistakes in my drawings, but you claim it "wrong" just to attract everybody's attention to promote/advertise your new book:
MiG-1 & MiG-3 In Profile and Scale

Well, nice trick! Congratulations! We will buy it! C'mon, everybody! The only truth about Stalin's MiGs revealed by Eric Pilawskii, for € 32.99 only! Don't miss it!

[x4btr]

i still have ALL the work done by the auther of the mig site, and trust me it most definitely is not a rehash

Oh, do you now?... Just have to stick your oar in... In fact, I have had the displeasure of knowing MT far, far longer than you have. Just to whom do you reckon he turned to early days, before the site, in its creation and thereafter? I know the full story of this entire affair from the first hand, and you do not. I stand categorically by my statement.

Mangas, your bitter and sarcastic attitude is strange and does you no credit. I was attempting to avoid a shameless 'plug' for my book, but you've killed that attempt dead. So, head off to your favourite down-load site (Kodges, or whichever) and get an illegal PDF copy. That will spare you having to pay for such "insidious rubbish".

I will be delighted to hear any mature or considered critique of any part of the work in my book. Equally, I will be delighted to ignore completely any type of absurd or personalised attacks based on whatever mad conspiracies which have been dreamed up. I encourage you (or everyone)-- indeed challenge you-- to put the research and contents of the book to the strictest examination. Please do.

And, please, stop with the obscenely poor "someone will always say it's wrong" jibes. If you cannot differentiate between a scholarly rebuke from a noted researcher who has just completed a major scientific work on the very topic, and a spitting match between some numpties on a web forum, then there is absolutely nothing that I can (or wish to) say to you....

[Jesters-Ink]

Be careful John, x4btr is Russian WWII aircraft history and knowledge.
I'd trust his research and line art above all others on this area of aviation.

Not cool either Mangus, not wise to spit in the face of one of the "greats" who is trying to help you.

[gamary]

@Mangas: if you look at the file I sent back to you, you will see why you are having trouble.

Your base colour should be grey. I doesn't absolutely have to be 50% grey, but that's what I use and it makes sense to me. For shading, you have to use pure black and nothing else. For lighting, you have to use pure white and nothing else. Vary the opacity of the black/white to get the desired result.

Your mistake was that you used dark grey to draw the shadow cast by the stabilizer. This is OK and unnoticeable as long as your base colour is grey, but doesn't work with any other colour, as you have discovered.

To correct this, simply select the layers where this mistake was done, lower the luminosity to make the grey black, and then adjust the opacity as required. Simple enough correction.

Having said this, I don't like the direction this thread is taking and will no longer be posting in it. And, no, this does not mean I am taking sides.

Over and out,

GM/BB